Tokugawa Civil Service Challenge

[Gunboat Diplomat]

This was a very interesting challenge. Thanks Simple Machine!

It took me 7 attempts to get T100 CS. After failing so many times, I started to get creative. In the end, I saved the GS while I teched Maths, then bulbed Alpha, and built research in my cities until I limped over the line. Not pretty, but I got there, so I'm pretending that's a win.

When my head is clearer, I'll read through the discussion more carefully - with any luck, I'll learn something.

Thanks also to Izuul for finding that micro challenge thread. I'll definitely be checking that out at some point!

 

[notslin]

I gave the cow settle a whirl just to see if it was comparable. Came up a few beakers short of T85 so i assume T85 is possible, but probably not T84.

Close to T85 is better than I expected! Cow settle is no good because it kills a good tile (3F 1C base yield) that can't be replaced. (Even though +1F sounds better than +1H.)

In my best solution, I work the cow every turn (except two turns after improving the rice and before growing to size 2). (In order to get T84 with some overflow, I actually have the capital at size 6, starving to size 5, and working 3 riverside cottages, all of which yield 3+ commerce.)

 

[Fippy]

I actually have the capital at size 6, starving to size 5, and working 3 riverside cottages, all of which yield 3+ commerce.)

Without a granary?
I never completed it in my try.

 

[notslin]

Without a granary?
I never completed it in my try.

With a granary (completed with food bar at 15/30 at size 5). (I built settler at size 4 and built about half the granary before I could start on Buddhist monastery, then built granary, then built the other monastery.)

I may have a bias towards growing cities but I think probably one can't do better without growing.

Screenshot below (not my most optimized attempt I think, but not too far from it, my most optimized attempt works the same tiles with same yield)

Spoiler :

 

[Izuul]

Close to T85 is better than I expected! Cow settle is no good because it kills a good tile (3F 1C base yield) that can't be replaced. (Even though +1F sounds better than +1H.)

In my best solution, I work the cow every turn (except two turns after improving the rice and before growing to size 2). (In order to get T84 with some overflow, I actually have the capital at size 6, starving to size 5, and working 3 riverside cottages, all of which yield 3+ commerce.)

Yeah I was expecting it to be worse than that too. I guess the accelerated growth has a bit of a snowball effect. Permanently losing that 3f cottage definitely hurts though.

 

[notslin]

I've gone back to this occasionally to try to get T84 without Buddhism auto-spread.

I eventually had to use some pretty niche tricks to save a beaker or two:

Spoiler :

• Maximize the technology prerequisite multiplier -- E.g., if you want to work the lake for a few turns (to get correct hammer overflow), work the lake when it increases your GNP by 3 not 2. (You can see your GNP in the Demographics screen.) This can occur when your current tech has a prerequisite and your base commerce is high enough (e.g., you're already working the silver).
• If nothing to build, stack overflow and use the "store overflow hammers" trick -- E.g., while waiting Confucianism in the capital, you can overflow a 14/15 warrior into a 59/60 granary, and then after granary completes with ~2 turns of production overflow, go to the city screen and press a number to save the overflow for later.
• Try to avoid the plains mine if you want to grow -- This is a beginner trick, but I'm still noting it because I got it wrong at first. When building the library, the 2F1H forest is much better than the 4H1C mine if it doesn't delay library completion, because you want to try to get to size 5 ASAP after the library completes so that you can work the silver mine while running scientists. (I guess mines are often a bad tile if low surplus food, unless building a settler or worker.)

But I still ended up several beakers away from T84, so I doubt T84 is possible without Buddhism auto-spread. (If it's possible, it would involve a lot of rounding tricks that would be very time-consuming for a human to figure out.)

With Buddhism auto-spread, I think micro tricks are a bit less beneficial, since you always have something to build and almost have "enough" research (it's possible to finish Code of Laws too early).

 

[notslin]

Update -- I'm literally 1-2 beakers short of T84 without Buddhist auto-spread. I'll give up at this point. Also, put the tricks I listed in my previous post in SPOILER tags just in case someone wants to try.

 

[soundjata]

@notslin this game is devilish be careful bro

 

[notslin]

One thing that confused me was that this old thread about research is outdated https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/technology-research-explained.146163/

It turns out the "research overflow" thing doesn't work the same way now as it did in the first version of the game. The way it works now is below:

            int iOverflow = (100 * (getResearchProgress(eIndex) - getResearchCost(eIndex))) / std::max(1, GET_PLAYER(ePlayer).calculateResearchModifier(eIndex));
            GET_PLAYER(ePlayer).changeOverflowResearch(iOverflow);
...
            iOverflowResearch = (getOverflowResearch() * calculateResearchModifier(eCurrentTech)) / 100;
            setOverflowResearch(0);
            GET_TEAM(getTeam()).changeResearchProgress(eCurrentTech, (calculateResearchRate() + iOverflowResearch), getID());

I think the optimal solution (without Buddhist auto-spread) is probably exactly 1 beaker (1 GNP) away from T84. That's what I got after optimizing research overflows.

At least now I know how beakers work

[Edit] Here's a post that is up-to-date that I found -- https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/beaker-overflow.624745/post-15237657